Unreasonably slow driving is practically impossible to fine. Elderly and disabled people have protection, truck drivers have bad luck – Garáž.cz

If you think that the phenomenon of driving too slowly occurs most often somewhere between villages, where an elderly driver delays everyone around by driving very carefully, you are wrong. There are far more drivers who permanently use the center or even the left lane on highways instead of the right (which is only for trucks, right?). And since gasoline is expensive, it will set the optimal 110 km/h, god willing.

Unreasonably slow driving can also be a safety risk, however, not only because selected individuals drive like crazy around the “retarder” in question. Some drivers are just impatient, so they decide to overtake the slow leader of the column at all costs. Sometimes even at the cost of your own life.

Another example is winter traffic and an extremely timid driver who drives unreasonably slowly even on a comfortably passable section. Then such a driver exposes himself to the risk that other road users will start to overtake him, sometimes even dangerously, which can again end in misfortune.

Sometimes it’s really appropriate to be judgmental and realize that if I really don’t have it, I won’t get behind the wheel. And this applies not only to winter traffic, but also to people who are no longer medically/mentally fit to drive motor vehicles, but still have a driver’s license. It is not for nothing that they say that a car is a de facto loaded weapon.

On the other hand, we have a variety of qualified drivers who regularly travel on our roads, but do not go overboard with speed. These are for example beginners, elderly people or people who have a medical handicap. In the case of these drivers, according to the police, their careful driving cannot be considered unreasonably slow, which is also confirmed by jurisprudence, for example the resolution of May 30, 2005. This is because it says:

“Reasonable speed is not always just the speed that is permitted in a certain place by law, but the (current) speed that is appropriate to the circumstances of the case and the overall current situation in road traffic.”

The road law also responds to the topic of slow driving, which says: “The driver must adjust the driving speed especially his abilities, the characteristics of the vehicle and load, the expected construction and traffic technical condition of the road, its category and class, weather conditions and other circumstances that can be foreseen; he is only allowed to drive at such a speed that he is able to stop the vehicle at a distance that he can see.’

From all of this, it follows that punishing an unreasonably/unreasonably slow driver is very difficult, with some exceptions, because our legislation is not adapted to this issue, unlike some foreign countries.

You may still recall the paragraph from the Road Act, which reads: “Not to restrict means the obligation to act in such a way that another road user is not hindered in any way.” However, according to the police, this provision is simply not enough in this issue.

The only effective impairment for slow driving, with exceptions, actually threatens drivers of vehicles longer than 7 m and drivers of trucks over 3.5 tons, including truckers who overtake on the highway. Take a look at the quote from the Road Act by Hana Rubášová, press spokesperson of the Police Presidium.

“The situation is different on highways in the case of overtaking by truck drivers, when the driver of a truck with a total weight exceeding 3,500 kg and a driver of a vehicle combination whose total length exceeds 7 m must not overtake another vehicle unless he has sufficient speed to overtake it, so would restrict the movement of other vehicles with its significantly lower speed.”

We have already presented this issue to you on Garáž (including the court decision), and if you have not read the article, we recommend that you do so HERE. Furthermore, with new legislation coming into force next year, it will become much easier to prosecute wrongly overtaking truckers (and others involved) on the motorway.

So while speeding fines can be 100% relied upon, the solution to unreasonably/unreasonably slow driving by some drivers is already an issue that our legislation is not yet fully adapted to. So we all have to show the necessary consideration and those slower drivers look into their conscience and ask themselves if their behavior behind the wheel is still or no longer socially safe.